Heretofore all luggage of the variety commonly called garment bags have been of one basic design. In these traditional garment bags, clothing on a hanger is attached at one end of a long rectangular bag and the bag is folded to reduce its size so it may be more easily carried. Shoes and other bulky objects are loaded into one end of the bag so that when the bag is folded and carried all the bulky objects are at the bottom of the bag, causing the bag to be substantially wider at the bottom than at the top. This also results in uneven weight distribution by putting much of the weight at the bottom of the garment bag.
The traditional design of garment bags suffers from two serious flaws. First they require the clothing within to be folded which results in wrinkles and creases in the garments. Second the shape of these garment bags is such that they are very bulky and awkward to carry. Furthermore because of the awkward shape of the garment bag it is difficult to fit it into storage bins on airplanes. It is especially true that this awkward shape makes it more difficult to lift the bag over ones head which is required to fit it into the overhead bin on an airplane.
Traditional garment bags are popular among business travelers since, up to now, they have been the only type of luggage available to carry suits and similar formal business garments. It is common to see a majority of passengers on a commercial airline flight carrying these types of garment bags. It is also common to see business travelers carry their luggage aboard the plane and stow it in either an overhead bin or under the seat in front of them, the two spaces provided by the airlines for luggage carried aboard flights. This helps to save time by eliminating the need to wait for checked bags after the plane has landed. It is advantageous to the passengers if their luggage fits easily into one of these two designated places. It is becoming more common for airlines to require that oversized and bulky pieces of luggage be checked into the cargo hold to avoid flight delays brought on by passengers struggling to make a piece of luggage fit into too small a space. Traditional garment bags are often too bulky to fit into either of these two designated storage sites. A further disadvantage of this design is that the bag must be folded in half to reduce it to a manageable size. This results in the clothing becoming wrinkled and not wearable in a business setting without subsequent ironing or pressing.
A newer variation of the traditional garment bag design tries to reduce the overall size of the luggage by folding twice so that the bag is divided into three sections. While this may reduce the external size of the bag it requires the garments to be folded in two places instead of only one thereby increasing the problem of wrinkling.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel garment carrying system which will minimize wrinkles, allow for easy and quick packing and unpacking, be useable with various types of luggage, and fit in a more compact space than traditional garment bags.